


Damned If I Do

by impish_nature



Series: A Step In The Wrong Direction [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Grifting Stars AU, Reverse portal (Kind of), The Fall - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 21:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15715458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impish_nature/pseuds/impish_nature
Summary: Grifting Stars AU. After thirty years of work, thirty years of effort, Stan is finally ready to open the portal. Unfortunately for him, the world has never been fair.Part one: The Fall





	Damned If I Do

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who got me back into Grifting Stars AU? You guessed it @sightkeeper with their lovely art here.  
> Just a note to all the lovelies following along with the stuff we sometimes do together- this is a little bit different. This isn’t a collaboration c: Not that we don’t love doing them! We just had different ideas on how this story would go- and decided, well- why not surprise each other for a change as well then? ^o^

"Grunkle Sta-"

Stan blinked, a gasp of air escaping him as the world around him shifted abruptly. 

Everything was suddenly off kilter. Disconcerting and jarring. Tilting dramatically with every small movement as if it might as well fall entirely away from him, no longer as real and tangible as it had once been. His stomach fell instead though, sinking through the floor in a wave of apprehension, an alarm bell that pounded inside his head along with his pulse even as the fizzling sense of weightlessness sparked in his extremities.

His mind went blank, his body limp as it resigned itself to an unknown fate.

He wasn't entirely sure what was happening, or how it had happened, everything had become a confusing blur, inside and out- a terrible, broken mess that he wanted to blink away from his retinas and convince himself couldn't possibly be real. 

Everything was slipping through his fingers, a congealing mass of what ifs- what should haves and what would haves- mixed up into a scenario he hadn't even dreamt of, not even in his worst nightmares.

It had all been so fast. A split second decision. The cold metal bar slipping from his grasp. The energy of the portal crackling out in a wave across his back, snapping through every nerve in his body-

All he knew in that strange time defying moment, was that his mind couldn't seem to stay on one solid track. Couldn't focus, couldn't stay on task. His mind snapped to and fro, whiplash fast, diverting down branches and branches of connecting lines, on a runaway train that was doomed to crash and there seemed to be nothing he could do about it. No desperately needed brake to pull himself out of the mess he'd created for himself.

All that registered amongst the turbulent storm inside his skull, was that the ground was getting further and further away from him. He couldn't help but glue his eyes to the floor as it slipped quickly out of reach.

As  _everything_  slipped out of reach.

...That wasn't supposed to happen, was it? 

Not usually at least.

There were laws about this kind of thing, he remembered that much. Physics, and science in general, telling him in cold, deadpan, textbook voices that this couldn't possibly be happening. He remembered late nights reading, struggling, through his brother's copious books and journals, large and unyielding things whose words never seemed to quite sink in, running long and foreign across the pages. Remembered contradiction after contradiction in every turned page, squinting through the headaches they brought on to figure out how exactly Ford had achieved what he had, when every single book he held in his library said it was completely and utterly impossible.

_Your science project is going to be the death of me, Ford. How am I meant to figure it all out when I didn't even finish high school? How am I meant to know what to do, when even you don't seem entirely sure how some of the parts work-_

_Wrong. Wrong. Wrong- if all the science in these books is wrong, why did you keep them?_

_You weren't supposed to do this. This wasn't supposed to be possible. If it wasn't supposed to happen in the first place, how do I fix any of it?_   _How do I bring you home?_

It was funny how similar his thoughts sounded in hindsight. His age old shouts and cries that had rumbled aeons ago through this very room and flitted through his skull, might as well have been screaming out of him as the portal cracked and fizzled behind him, surprisingly muffled, whistling through his memory as much as his senses.

_This wasn't supposed to happen._

That one mantra, whizzed its way round and round his head. It cut short any slight chances, any reasonable, practical thoughts he might have at actually fixing the situation he'd found himself in before they had even truly begun to manifest.

_This wasn't supposed to happen._

It wasn't the science behind it all that was getting him this time though, wasn't  _that_  that stopped him in his tracks and left him fumbling late at night, trying to ignore the fact that he was attempting to rebuild a seemingly unbuildable machine. He was fairly used to all that by now, in a weird way. This was Gravity Falls, after all- they might as well write on the sign 'Where the impossible happens!' with everything he had been privy to over the thirty years he'd called this place home. Truth be told, it wasn't even the first time that gravity had shifted abruptly while he was getting to work on the portal either.

No, he'd learnt to prepare for every jump and shift that the portal dragged out of the surrounding area, set up alarms and noted where best to be when they occurred, learnt what to say if anyone brought up the strange anomalies. 

Heck, he'd even used the shifts to his advantage earlier that very same day.

No, it was the fact that this time he'd been  _so_  prepared that was making this unseen circumstance so much more of a shock to his system, a flood of cold ice that doused his thoughts and locked them in place. He'd been so sure that he had thought of and knew every possible outcome that he couldn't pull himself out of his head and into the present where he needed to be. The shock had him spiralling down memory lane and crisscrossing from connecting dot to connecting dot that didn't give him the full picture. A mess of puzzle pieces that had scattered across the floor and no longer fitted together as they should.

He hadn't prepared for this.

The shift in gravity had never taken him by surprise before-

 _No, that's not true_. 

His mind snapped away once again, careening down another tangent. Off to another time, as if his precarious predicament didn't actually require his full attention. Those more pressing matters, unheeded and unheard even when they'd been vying for the top spot, were abruptly nudged just out of sight along his peripheral, his focus instead given over to an age old memory.  _The memory_. The one that had kept him fighting through every obstacle the world threw at him for the last thirty years. 

He hoped he could be forgiven for that moment of shock, that first lapse in preparation. He had never seen the portal before or what it could do- of course the gravity twist had taken him by surprise. Of course, he hadn't expected that pushing his brother backwards would result in-

_Is this what it felt like for Ford?_

A small trickle of clarity dragged him back, his wayward thoughts screeching to a juddering halt. It put everything back in line again as the world around him sharpened back into reality.

The 'why' and 'what if' of the scenario didn't matter. What mattered was that it  _was_  undeniably happening.

He'd been caught unprepared and he was paying the price for it, sucked up into the portal he had desperately spent years trying to rebuild.

His mind raced back to the present circumstances, realisation forming into a distinct sinking feeling in his gut that didn't really correspond with his floating status.

He wasn't going back to the ground again anytime soon.

This was it. The culmination of his labours.

This wasn't what was  _supposed_  to happen. 

This wasn't the moment he'd been dreaming of for nigh on thirty years.

No, this was something that played out more in his nightmares than it did his dreams, a weird twisted parody of a memory that his mind would play for him in his darkest moments, when the weight of all his actions threatened to crush him under their unceasing scrutiny.

_At least Ford had you to blame for what happened to him. You've only got yourself to blame, Stan._

The world slowed to a sickening crawl, as everything laid itself bare before him. He knew that it hadn't, was sure that the portal didn't affect time in the same way it did gravity, but in that moment it felt like he could see so much more than he'd ever been able to before.

The storm inside his head fizzled out as the world stilled before him, leaving behind everything he needed to know. The puzzle pieces reconnected from the far flung places they'd scattered to, but the full picture that he'd been expecting for this day was nowhere to be seen, leaving only a reality that was painfully overwhelming and despairingly bleak.

It became a photograph left behind on his retinas- scarred deep the same way as other poignant memories, so that it would never truly leave him- showing him where all of his terrible mistakes had led him.

_Is this what they mean by your life flashing before your eyes? A single moment where everything that went wrong connects into a big old domino effect to show you why you are where you've found yourself?_

He tried to ignore the depressing thought as a crackling, sparking heat made itself known at his back. It was probably his inability to move- held aloft by a force that had no place in their plane of existence- that made the world feel that much slower in that moment. The weight of all his actions piling up around him, on the other hand, had always been there, no matter how much he tried to force them back. 

Maybe, instead of his life flashing before him, it was more likely that as his body was now weightless and adrift, his actions were dropping like stones around him, right where he had more chance to see them in all their repugnant glory. 

Because that's all they were. Reckless action, upon reckless action that had led him to this unexpected turn of events.

It was all so unreal, so different from every single outcome that he had been waiting for that he couldn't even pretend for a moment that it was all just a nightmare. It was too vivid, too twisted and as unbelievable as it was, more off kilter than his own vulnerable, floating form.

It was almost funny. Terribly, devastatingly, funny.

A gigantic cosmic joke.

He felt like laughing, that was for sure.

He kind of felt like crying too.

Things had kept going wrong. Throughout every single step in his plan, something had pulled him up short. He had pushed and pushed, regardless of every set back, torn himself apart to get to this moment, right here, right now, no matter what obstacles the world threw at him.

And even then people kept getting in his way- why did they have to keep getting caught up in it all? Why couldn't they just let him  _try_?

Why did they all have to get involved? Why couldn't they leave him be?

He only had one chance, one shot to fix everything and he had done so much to get here- everyone had tried to  _ruin_  it! His big break, his moment to right all the wrongs he had made and they couldn't stop ruining it!

...They  _had_  ruined it.

No... He'd ruined it.

A million mistakes ran through his head, a million answers to a million questions, but disappointingly all in hindsight. Questions that should never have had to have been asked in the first place, ones he should have thought of before they even came about. Excuses, lies, every trick in the book- he was good at all that, everyone said it was all he was good at, yet the moment he'd needed those talents the most he'd squandered them.

Just once. Just this once he wanted to do something right.

Just this once, he'd wanted this moment to go exactly how he'd planned for it to.

Was that so hard an ask?

Apparently, according to the universe- Yes. Yes it was.

"Grunkle Stan!"

Time shifted again, his ears popping as the world rushed in to greet him once more, a maelstrom of movement that snapped back into action.

Everything clattered back into frame like a disjointed roll of film. 

Escaping from the agents. Running, through the town and woods, darting this way and that to keep anyone from following him or stopping him to ask questions.

Stumbling down flights of stairs, ignoring the elevator because there wasn't time, he couldn't stand around and wait- he had to be there, he had to be right there when the portal finally opened after all these years-

The kids. The kids weren't meant to be here. They were poised over the emergency cut off button, eyes suspicious and betrayed and his heart felt like it had stopped beating, his body ice cold as Soos agreed with them over him.

_No time. No time. This can't be happening- please-_

They didn't understand! He hadn't had time to explain what with everything that had happened. And he still didn't have time. He just needed them to believe in him, trust him- needed them to understand that this was all for their benefit, for their family's benefit-

Another gravity shift, he'd forgotten- he'd slipped up, too busy trying to figure out what to say-

And Mabel- Mabel was still so close to that button, she couldn't- he couldn't- he had to stop her-

He'd somehow managed to dodge Soos as he propelled himself at him, ducked under Dipper as he followed suit, shouting all the while at his sister to shut it all down, and in amongst the chaos found himself holding onto the same metal bar that Mabel was gripping tightly too.

She followed his movements, eyes scared and lip wobbling as she flinched away from him.

And didn't his chest tighten painfully at the prospect that she was afraid of him.

"Grunkle Stan. I don't even know if you're my Grunkle. I-I wanna believe you but..."

Stan's face fell, eyes locked with Mabel's as her voice hitched and her trust in him faltered.

He was a terrible person.

She had so much faith in him and he'd pushed too far, even for her.

The portal pulsed, a wave of energy crashing out around them. He held tight to the bar, heard more than saw the other two get pushed back by the wave, leaving just the pair of them, locked in a bubble at the heart of the storm.

And Mabel's hand still rested above the button, determination plastered across her tight lipped face.

"Mabel, I-  _please_ -" He waited until she was looking at him again, trying his best for once to be as genuine as possible. "I know I'm not the best person- heck I'm not even really a good person but- do you really think I'm a bad guy?"

"I- I don't- that's not-" Her expression wavered, another tear slipping past as her hand shook above the button.

Stan desperately wanted to hug her, but he couldn't risk the move being seen as hostile, couldn't risk her flinching and bringing her hand down on everything his life amounted to.

"Everything I've done, I've done for this family, I  _swear_ -"

Her face twisted, uncomprehending confusion furrowing her eyebrows. He'd never had the chance to explain and there was only so much time they had now. How could he tell her everything that had led up to this moment? How could he get her to understand that someone important, the most important person in his world, was on the other side of that portal and he  _had_  to get him back-

And even if he did, would she believe a word of it? Or would she decide he was spinning a story to convince her and take it as undeniable proof that he could never be honest even to save his own life?

He hated it, hated to see her so conflicted, she wasn't meant to look like that-

And in that moment, he knew exactly what to say and do. Even though it hurt so much. Even if it was a risk, one that could very well unravel everything he had done, could break down everything that he had tried to achieve, and it scared him more than anything, his heart pounding in his chest at what the repercussions might be.

But it was a risk he knew he had to take.

"It's OK, Mabel."

Maybe it was time to let someone else make the decision.

Mabel had blinked at him, eyes still completely drenched in tears that were fast soaking into her hairline.

"Whatever you choose to do- It's OK. I'm not going to stop you. But I just need you to know that I  _am_  your family, and I would never do anything to hurt you. Not now, not ever."

Her expression wavered further, her head turning to the portal behind her and back to him again as if desperately searching for something there.

He wasn't sure if she found what she was looking for but her expression softened.

"I trust you."

His heart broke at the sad, soft voice, a rush of relief mixed with guilt swirling as Dipper shouted in defiance behind him.

They'd get it. Soon enough they'd all get it and everything would be OK.

It hurt for now, sure, that his little shooting star couldn't look him in the eye as she said the words but soon Ford would be here and he'd apologise for all the lies, for everything that had happened, and they'd be a happy family again, just with an addition-

He watched as Mabel's hand shifted, pulled back from the button as she relaxed. As she gave in to the need to believe in him just one more time, and in the same moment her other hand loosened, her grip on the metal bar slipping entirely.

Her eyes widened as her hold vanished, fear flooding through her as her body began to lift, her flailing arms not near enough to regain their grasp.

Stan didn't even think, he just moved. He propelled himself forward, grabbed her tightly and used his momentum to push her back towards the bar, watched her latch onto it before spinning back towards him, arm outstretched-

But it was too late.

There was nothing any of them could do now as the counter clicked to zero and his tailspin pulled him out of reach.

"Grunkle Stan!"

Mabel's tears were drifting up to meet him, her eyes wide and shocked as she reached out a desperate hand against all odds, found himself reaching back blindly as well, her expression enough to make him try at the very least.

"Grunkle Stan!"

"Mr Pines!"

Other voices mingled in with her's, his eyes darting across the room to where Dipper was stuck struggling against the wall, his face shocked and guilt ridden as he struggled against what held him bound to the other side of the room.

Apparently, concern had won out, their fear for his well-being upsetting the balance of betrayal and hurt that had led them to this point.

_They're good kids._

Something in him broke. The fear fell away as the heat from the portal turned suddenly cold just as his back hit the surface. He found himself smiling sadly down at the panicked girl before him.

What did it matter what happened to him? She was safe. He'd made his decision.

As long as they were safe, maybe he hadn't made the biggest mistake of his life, after all.

His vision turned abruptly white as his head sank through the surface of the portal, the cascading colours sharpening to a blinding point. 

_I hope they don't blame themselves like I did._

* * *

 

The portal was almost more than he could handle, his view of reality warping and shattering into meaningless drivel as he careened ever onward.

It was dizzying, a spinning kaleidoscope of shapes and colours that made so sense, he wasn't even sure some of the colours existed, had no words to put to the things that he was seeing as he hurtled on through. It had a texture he found, a heat, his hands scraping through thick tar and sharp static that made his body spasm as he continued to spin out of control.

He had no sense of direction, his ears crackling with the pressure of it all, he could have been flying upwards still or crashing down for all his body could determine of the funnel he was being forced through. 

He closed his eyes against the onslaught, focused on his breathing and the kids, trying to settle the nerves and tremors that wracked his body. Tried against all odds to keep himself from splitting apart at the seams and falling through the cracks in the vortex he'd unwillingly entered.

Whatever happened, he needed to be in one piece wherever he found himself once the ordeal was over. Mind, body and soul had to be intact if he was ever going to find Ford and get them both back home to the kids.

He paused in his thoughts as the tension eased, the roaring in his ears becoming ever so slightly quieter. 

Was he slowing down? Was this it-

Something heavy and unyielding hit him in the back, his velocity coming to an abrupt jarring halt that punched through him in a blinding white shock of pain. The collision came with a loud crackling boom, a blast of heat that seared along what little he could still feel as his world became abruptly silent all at once.

When he came back to his senses, he knew for a fact this time that he was falling, the whistle of the wind brushing against his face as he tumbled down. 

He landed on solid ground with a thud and a deep pained groan, his knees giving way as he collided with the earth like a tonne of bricks. 

His crash-landing was marked by something else falling with him, a resounding grunt hitting down beside him as he fell to the side and found himself staring up at a vast, ever changing sky, a blinding array of colours that made his stomach lurch and his eyes squint. It was neon, bold and brash and loud, with no light source in sight and yet everything seemed to glowed in a surreal irritating itch right behind his eyes, grating painfully against his retinas.

The very air seemed to be making his skin burn and tingle, a pressure that continued down his throat as he took gasping breaths in. His mouth in turn tasted of ash with a tang of something he really did not want to identify, curdling solidly inside his stomach like he was breathing in more than just air with every lungful. His ears rang with a cacophony of strange warbled sounds, reminiscent of echoing screams amidst crackling white noise. Exiting the portal had sounded like an explosion, a crack of unexpected sound that burst inside his skull and ricocheted around until there was nothing left but a hollow cavern where his mind had once been.

Wherever he had found himself, he was pretty damn sure no human was ever meant to see it.

He wasn't quite sure he'd ever regain his senses completely. Everything was too bright, too loud, too  _much_. He didn't want to move, the sheer amount of everything overwhelming as he lay and tried to just breath through it all.

Trust his brother to make a portal that led to this hellscape. Why on earth would he want to travel here of all places?

Stan grimaced, that thought bringing up unbidden thoughts on what else may be lying in wait out there.

...None of this should have ever been meddled with, that much he was certain of.

And if he could reason that out so easily, he was hard pressed to come up with a reason for his genius of a brother not realising it too.

Speaking of his brother, a shadow abruptly impeded his view of the hellish land he had found himself in. A very familiar figure in fact, a lot older, but familiar none the less.

He wasn't sure anyone could scowl at him quite like his brother could.

Stan huffed, a sigh echoing past his lips at the dark piercing glare. 

Of course Ford was angry with him. When wasn't he angry with him?

He couldn't bring himself to move as he lay blinking dazedly up at his twin. He could see his mouth moving, as rapid fire as his darting eyes but he couldn't seem to catch a word of it. Not that it really mattered, he was sure he got the gist of it. Reckless, useless,  _worthless_ \- take your pick, he'd heard it all before, what did it matter if he didn't actually hear it this time over?

He closed his eyes against it all, let himself sink into the floor and wished this strange new world would just swallow him up whole. Maybe then he could pretend this was all just a bad dream. Maybe he had a fever, maybe he'd eaten something he shouldn't have and all of this was just nonsensical gibberish that his mind had conjured up to torture him with.

He groaned as hands found his shoulders, shaking him violently. Stan found his eyes popping open, his gaze focusing once more on Ford's face as it contorted downwards further. There was a sliver of annoyance peeking through the haze now, an irritation fizzling in amongst the nothingness that hated the fact that Ford wasn't happy just let whatever anger he was directing at him wash over him entirely.

Couldn't he have this? Just this once, couldn't he sink into the numbness and pretend for once in his life he hadn't ruined everything?

Wait, was that some concern mixed in there? Stan blinked, gaze suddenly sharper as his eyes darted around Ford's face. There was a desperate edge to the anger, his eyes wider than they should be, the set of his shoulders high and tense as if he was afraid. But surely not, Ford wouldn't be concerned- there was no way-

It was that thought more than anything that made his ears pop, the cacophony of sounds somehow becoming louder. He hadn't even realised his ears were ringing, he'd just assumed this world sounded that way, yet now - that was definitely screaming in the distance, echoing pain filled gargles and hissing spitting shrieks-

He tried not to focus on the nauseating noises, his eyes on Ford's lips as he struggled to hear through it all, as he raised himself onto his elbows and Ford's face shifted ever so slightly into relief. 

What was even more perplexing were the fingers grazing through his hair, as if checking for any signs of injury- did he really seem that out of it?

Maybe. Stan blinked again, not entirely sure his brain and his body were wholly connected anymore, but it still didn't make sense at all for Ford to be caring.

"Stan? Stan, can you hear me? Of all the reckless, stupid things you could have done-"

Stan almost flopped back down onto the ground in defeat as the words made it through the tar-like substance in his skull. All that effort to listen, all that effort to bring himself into the world and it was to hear exactly what he had hoped he wouldn't have to. Why did he have to listen to Ford when he was just saying the things that circled around his head on a daily basis?

"What on earth were you thinking, you knucklehead- hey, hey, stay with me, keep listening to me."

God, this place was awful. Not only did he have to deal with the new glaringly painful sensations, he also had to deal with the whiplash his brother's words were causing.

Couldn't he just make up his mind where he hated him or cared about him? It would be a lot easier for the both of them. Half his words made sense, the rest felt weird coming out of his mouth, like Stan's expectations and hopes that always refused to become reality.

He wished he'd never fallen through.

Stan's eyes widened in an instant as the world crashed around him once more. He wasn't even sure how much time had passed since he'd fallen through. It felt like he was moving through molasses- had he hit his head on entry, was that it? Either way, everything became clear in a jarring moment, the world sharpening to a point but somehow less painfully than before.

Ford. He'd found Ford. The portal.

He had to get Ford through the portal. Get him home.

Get to the kids.

How had he forgotten all of that? How had he been ready to sink into oblivion and give up when they were waiting for him?

He pulled himself to his feet in one movement, wondering how moments ago he'd felt like he'd never move again- perhaps it was the adrenaline moving him onward now, but whatever it was, he'd take it. He ignored his brother as he scuttled up with him, his words a distant memory again as he turned to face the way he'd fallen, eyes casting around for the familiar glow, hand tight in Ford's sleeve, ready to drag him kicking and screaming if he had to-

"It's gone, Stan. The portal's gone."

No. It couldn't be.

Stan continued to ignore him, his gaze still darting around for any sign, that crackle of energy, that fizzle to the air that made all of his hair stand on end. Maybe it was fading, that was all, now invisible but still there enough for them to slip through. He looked further afield even, turned in a full circle. Maybe he'd been wrong about where and how he'd fallen, maybe he'd been propelled further than he'd initially thought-

He paused in his musings as his eyes found a myriad of groaning, strange creatures, each one struggling to their feet- if they had feet at all- he almost felt for them, if he didn't have bigger things on his mind.

"Stan. It's gone, I made sure of it."

And just like that, everything fell around his ears. 

He rounded on Ford, eyes bright and sharp in a way that seemed to only make Ford angrier again but he couldn't bring himself to care. "You did  _what_?"

"I was making sure nothing followed me! But when I jumped through, I hit you coming the other way- honestly, what were you thinking, coming  _through_  the portal?"

"I didn't exactly mean to, you know! And what do you mean,  _follow you_?"

"I mean-"

" _Well, well, well. What have we got here?"_

Stan suddenly realised, he probably didn't want to know the answer to that question anyway.

He found his eyes going past his brother's shoulder, the strange, intriguing creatures from before now far more unsettling and hostile as Ford's words sunk in through the anger.

Ford froze before him, his face paling in fear. In an instant he was moving again, Stan stepping back from the frenzied movements without a thought as he patted himself down. He watched silently as Ford looked all around them in juddering quick jolts- but for what Stan had no idea, the floor around them barren and burnt- before he cursed, eyes once again wide and wild as he grabbed onto Stan and tugged him forward forcefully.

"We need to go."

"But the portal-"

"There's no time, Stan! There's no way through anymore, it's gone."

He wrenched away from the hand on his arm, his eyes desperate as they found Ford's.

"But we need to get back to the kids!" 

" _Kids_?" Ford reared back at the word, his face disbelieving and shocked before he shook himself, glancing over his shoulder at the group steadily regaining their footing. "Alright, OK, not an outcome I had envisioned- but not something we can take care of now." Stan opened his mouth to retort but was caught in the breath as Ford snapped back to him, hands wrapped around both his shoulders as he gave him a quick shake. " _Stan_. There's nothing we can do. But if we get out of this mess we're in right this moment- maybe there's a chance we can figure out something later. If we stay here, we'll never get- home."

Stan didn't like how the word sounded wrong coming from Ford's mouth, how he had faltered and grimaced as if he didn't believe any of it himself.

_"Aww, come on, Sixer, the party's only just begun. And I've been looking forward to meeting your twin for a very long time."_

Something close to protective flitted across Ford's face so quickly, Stan almost missed it. If it wasn't for his grip on his shoulders getting painfully tight, he might have believed he imagined it. 

But even if it wasn't there, self-preservation was a hard taskmaster to ignore. He'd learnt the hard way a long time ago to listen to his gut, and a disembodied voice knowing who he was and wanting to meet him set off more alarm bells than he could count.

It still didn't stop the guilt-ridden thump of his heart as he finally pulled himself away from where he assumed the portal had been, the feeling of betrayal thick and heavy on his tongue as he thought of the twins waiting for him.

"OK, what do we do?"

"Run. Do as I say, when I say it and whatever you do- Do. Not. Look. Back."

**Author's Note:**

> Amazing art by sightkeeper who was lovely enough to let me use it <3  
> http://sightkeeper.tumblr.com/post/176959125379/back-in-january-i-made-this-comic-wherein-stan  
> please go show them the love!!


End file.
